LAND TENURE WORKING PAPER 9

Volontary guidelines for good governance
in land and natural resource tenure

Issues from an international
institutional perspective

Richard Grover
Oxford Brookes University, UK

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FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO)
Rome, 2009

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ABSTRACT

Voluntary guidelines are human-rights based documents that provide a framework and reference point for national and international policies. They need to be derived from international agreements and credible examples of good practice if they are to command wide support. This paper is based on 56 authoritative international documents from which 14 principles about land and natural resources tenure have been derived.

• States should provide and safeguard an enabling environment for good governance in land and natural resources tenure. • All persons should receive the equal protection of the law and of their human rights, including their property rights. • Equitable access to land supported by security of tenure and use is essential to provide adequate standards of living. • Everyone should have the right to own property individually or collectively and not to be deprived of it arbitrarily. • Tenures and contract terms in tenancy agreements and for secured loans that breach human rights should be outlawed. • Persons should be protected from unlawful or arbitrary eviction. • States should establish restitution processes to enable those who have been wrongfully dispossessed to recover their land, housing and property. • Where the restitution of property to those displaced is not possible, the losers should receive fair compensation. • Gender discrimination in access to land should be outlawed. • Racial discrimination in access to land should be outlawed. • Discrimination in access to land by and in the protection of property rights of indigenous and tribal peoples should be outlawed. • The development of land and natural resources should be sustainable in recognition of our obligations to future generations. • Governments should provide an effective regulatory framework within which land and secured credit markets can function effectively without disruption by market failures. • Initiatives to promote ethical standards in land administration should be supported.